John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood by Michael D. Sellers

Author:Michael D. Sellers [Sellers, Michael D.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Arts & Entertainment
Publisher: Universal Media
Published: 2012-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

The Burroughs Community

As the theatrical trailer was released on November 30, 2011, a very interested party was Jim Sullos, President of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the publishing company that the entrepreneurial minded Burroughs had created in 1923. Almost 90 years later, the company continued to manage the rights to Burroughs’ creations, operating from the same small Spanish style bungalow on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana that Burroughs had built in 1926, and where he had written many of the Tarzan and John Carter novels.

In those days, Ventura Boulevard was not paved, and Burroughs would ride his horse to work; today, the boulevard is eight lanes wide with dense commercial structures on both sides. The small bungalow, largely unchanged since 1926, stands as a quaint anachronism and a window into an earlier era. From the street it is almost obscured from view by a large walnut tree in a gated front yard that is almost a jungle-like tangle of trees, vines, and shrubbery. Adding to the sense of myth and mystery is the fact that Burroughs’ ashes are buried without markings at the base of the walnut tree.

Sullos is an accountant by trade. After college and graduate school at Columbia University, he had joined the accounting firm of Windes & McClaughry in his native Long Beach. He spent his entire career with the firm, and from the mid 1990s counted Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. among the clients he served. His role included that of trustee and a member of the board of directors. When he reached mandatory retirement at age 62 in 2001, Sullos began divesting himself of clients. A trim and spritely 73 years old today, Sullos recalls: "When I was a 36-year-old partner, I voted for mandatory retirement without ever thinking I'd be that old. The time went just like that,” he says.204

As a longtime and trusted ally, Sullos was tapped to become President of the company on May 1, 2008, in a restructure that would make Burroughs’ grandson, Danton Burroughs, the Chairman of the company. Tragically, that same day Danton Burroughs -- who had been the keeper of the flame for the Burroughs legacy for the last 36 years -- died of heart failure a day after a fire at his home destroyed a room full of priceless family memorabilia. "It was tragic and unexpected," says Sullos.

In addition to the “official” Burroughs office in Tarzana, at the time of the release of the first trailer in July 2011, there was a nationwide network of Burroughs fan groups which, while not large in terms of absolute numbers, nevertheless represented a potential ally for Disney, with more than a thousand active participants spread among a half-dozen organizations and email lists, many of whom were academicians, journalists, and writers who have written extensively on Burroughs and were seasoned, excellent interview subjects. The roster of groups included the Burroughs Bibliophiles, founded in 1960 and with a lineage that could be traced back to 1947; Erbania, started in 1956; the National Capital Panthans, the Chicago Muckers, and others.

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